I went to the exhibition today, thought it worthwhile to take a short flight to see these instruments for possibly the last time. Yes, they are all out in the open. You could probably pick them up if you wanted to be rapidly and forcefully escorted out.
Spent a while talking to the chap who led the research part of the project, examined them, and did the appraisals. The estimates are.what he described as market value plus the typical Christies "spread", which is based on non-celebrity ownership.
I think the difficulty of accurately predicting the outcome is simply because no one knows what kind of emotional investment people might have to a particular.instrument. And in the case of the 59, it has so much value regardless of MK's ownership. Whereas a flying v copy given to him by his ex wife's brother *only* has value based on MK's ownership.
So, it's complicated.
Anyway, it was great to see these wonderful instruments right up close.